Contents

Biography

In April 2103, Upsilon was evacuated and its staff was transferred to Theta. Carl Semken and his colleague, Amy Azzaro, remained to set up the Upsilon facility in a way that would keep its thermal plant running and to secure the power production for the entirety of PATHOS-II while the staff was absent by sealing blocks to prevent Mockingbirds from breaking anything.

On May 4, 2103, while Semken and Azzaro were close to finishing their task, Semken was attacked and killed by a Universal Helper robot.

In SOMA

While Simon Jarrett explores Upsilon, he finds a damaged Mockingbird containing Carl Semken's brain scan. The robotic unit believes itself to be a wounded human and begs Simon to call for help. When Simon confronts Semken about his current condition, he reacts in a surprised manner, angrily denying his current state.

Simon later discovers that he will need to divert power to the communications center in order to access it. To do so, he can pull the nearby lever, diverting power to the communications center, but also causing Semken extreme pain, evidenced by the auxiliary power tube that passes over Semken's broken mockingbird.

Alternatively Simon can disable the reactor flow in the far room. Doing so will redirect power, shutting down Semken's Mockingbird model in the process, effectively killing him. The resulting explosion will also attract the attention of a Construct to the area.

Trivia

Semken was one of the first wranglers in Upsilon, in addition to Gavin Finley, to experience the side effects by using the pilot seats modified by the WAU to brain scan personnel.

Semken and Azzaro are shown to be good friends, evidenced by Amy's light-hearted sketches found near Semken's Mockingbird.

If you flip the switch without realizing you will hurt Semken, there is a moment where you can turn it back off. Semken will be shaken, but he will forgive you. If you leave the switch for too long, however, Semken will go into a catatonic state, and only respond to pain if you flip the switch again.

Originally, Semken would have a WAU flower growing near him. If Simon was to interact with it, he would plead for him to stop before dying when Simon touches it. There are still voices lines for this event in the game's files.